Letter to the editor: AP writer repeated basesless allegations

I feel obligated to set the record straight regarding Tom LoBianco’s Sept. 15 Associated Press article about the current controversy surrounding former State School Superintendent Tony Bennett.

Even though I am not involved in any way with Bennett or the Indiana Department of Education, LoBianco still manages to use his article as an opportunity to rehash false allegations that I or the Mourdock campaign improperly downloaded data from the Indiana Republican Party’s “Salesforce” software during the 2012 U.S. Senate Primary. Nothing of the sort happened.

In fact, such an allegation was simply an 11th-hour attempt by the Lugar campaign to divert attention away from the issues by engaging in groundless personal attacks against Treasurer Mourdock, his staff and his supporters.

Let me be clear: The email LoBianco references was, in fact, an off-hand, sarcasm-filled joke sent to another person and improperly obtained by an unscrupulous employee of the Republican State Committee, which was then provided out of context to the media.

The ultimate irony was that the entire basis for the joke in the email was that the State Republican Party had allowed the Lugar campaign unfettered access to download from this database during the entire 2012 primary season. The Mourdock Senate campaign never downloaded any data, ever. The real question the media should have asked is how the Lugar campaign was obtaining private emails from the personal accounts of Mourdock campaign staff.

Unfortunately, “journalists” like LoBianco seem more interested in repeating baseless allegations then they are in the truth or in writing stories about important issues facing our state and nation.